West End Girls - Music Video

Music Video

The video was directed by Andy Morahan and Eric Watson, and consists of shots of the duo around London. At the beginning of the video, noises from the city can be heard, a camera passes Lowe on the street, and focus on two vintage dolls in a shop window. Then appears a sequence of quick cuts with shots of the city's different sub-cultures, the video freezes and cuts to Tennant and Lowe, who walk through an empty Wentworth Street in Petticoat Lane Market. They stand in front of a red garage door, Tennant is in front dressed with a long coat, white shirt and dark necktie addressing directly to the camera, with Lowe standing behind him with a blank expression; Lowe is filmed in double-exposure and appears almost ghostlike. In other shots, Tennant walks imperiously while Lowe follows behind, as if one were a master and the other an apprentice.

Then the video shows various shots at Waterloo station, as the chorus starts. In slow motion, the camera pans across a shop on the station concourse as the duo walk past. It cuts to a brief shot of a red double-decker bus, and black and white shots of the Tower Bridge, Westminster and the Big Ben from the sky. The duo poses on the South Bank of the River Thames in a pastiche of a postcard image, with the Houses of Parliament as a background.

The camera shows shots of young women, and passes through arcades and cinemas in Leicester Square. The camera now passes the South Africa House, showing protestors in an anti-apartheid vigil. The video cuts to a closeup of Tennant singing the chorus, with a purple neon sign passing across his face. At the end the camera passes again through Leicester Square, where people queue to see Fletch and Desperately Seeking Susan. The video was nominated for Best New Artist in a Video at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards, but lost to a-ha's "Take on Me".